A Question of Lordship

Introduction

Having commanded us to love one another by not judging one another in disputable matters, Paul gives us the general principle that lies behind his command. In a word it is that Jesus Christ is our Lord and what we do we ought to be doing for him. Paul gives us this principle in three succinct categories which will serve to divide our text up: Who is not our Lord, Who is our Lord and How the question of Lordship has been settled. And in terms of the context of verses 1-6, those who live according to the principle of Christ's Lordship are to be treated and received as Christians, regardless of differences in disputable matters. What we have here is a question of Lordship, Jesus' Lordship versus our own. Who is Lord? That is the question that you and I must deal with here.

• In the first place Paul answers the question, Who is not our Lord? (7).
• We are not our own Lord in life. Paul puts it in term of our reason for living. For none of us lives to himself. We are not our own chief end in life. It is not our own pleasure that ought to be in view. What we want, what we like, what we do not want, what we do not like, our will, our desires, our wishes, hopes and fears, all of these are really quite irrelevant, or should be irrelevant. None of us lives to himself. But then it is equally true that
• We are not our own Lord in death. Paul puts it this way: none of us dies to himself. When we die we do not die at our own pleasure or at our own time. It is not left to us to determine when we will leave this vale of tears, when we shed this mortal flesh. It is the Lord who sets the boundaries of our habitation. We die at his pleasure and at his set time. And this, by the way, means suicide is forbidden. None of dies to himself.
• We need to begin here and honestly recognize our own tendency to seek to be our own Lord. There is not a one of us that does not think in our heart of hearts that we can run our own lives. And once we accept that idea, it is but a short step or two to believing we can run the lives of our brothers and sisters in Christ and force them to live by our personal standards, our own consciences. What Paul is saying is, if you are truly a Christian, you will not do that to yourself or others. The Christian is a person who surrenders lordship of their own life.
• And they surrender it to the only rightful Lord of their lives.
• And so Paul answers a second question, Who is our Lord? (8). Answer in two parts--
• Answer part 1: Christ is our Lord in life. That Paul means Christ is easily seen from verse 9. He puts it succinctly, If we live, it is to the Lord we live. It is for Christ's glory that we live-his glory is our chief end. It is his pleasure that ought to be in view. What he wants, what he commands, what brings him pleasure, these and these alone are our rule for faith and practice, what we will believe and what we will do. And that which he does not want, what he has forbidden and what he hates are what we will not believe or do, or should be what we believe or do. If we live, we live to the Lord.
• Answer part 2: Christ is our Lord in death. Paul says, If we die, it is to the Lord we die. It is up to Christ when we die and how we die and where we die. We are at his beck and call as regards our mortal life. We are here to fulfill his purposes and till that is done we are in fact immortal. But when his purposes are fulfilled, then our time is done and we depart from this life and are absent from the body and at home with the Lord. In death the believer is as devoted to the Lord Jesus Christ as he was in life. It is joyful submission, a joyful homegoing. By faith in Christ we view death as a time of transition from this life to the next, and we look forward to the coming resurrection. Thus we serve Christ, even at the point of dying. If we die, we die to the Lord.
• Whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord. And this is the key point. The Lordship of Christ. We belong to Jesus. It is the point Paul made back in Romans 12:2. If we discover by experience what God's will is as that which is good and perfect and well-pleasing, it is because of our practical recognition of the Lordship of Christ. That is also the point he made in verse 4 as well. To his own Lord he stands or falls. We are not our own, we were bought with a price, he told the Corinthians. In Old Testament terms, we are slaves who have declared our love for our Master and our ears have been pierced through so that we will live only for him. Life then becomes a point of obedience to our Master. Consider, I beg you, what price he paid for your soul, that his life was exchanged for yours and you cannot possibly miss Paul's point here. Whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.
• John Calvin is worth hearing on this point: The application of this doctrine opens into a wide field. God thus claims authority over life and death, that his own condition might be borne by every one as a yoke laid on him; for it is but just that he should assign to every one his station and his course of life. And thus we are not only forbidden rashly to attempt this or that without God's command, but we are also commanded to be patient under all troubles and losses. If at any time the flesh draws back in adversities, let it come to our minds, that he who is not free nor has authority over himself, perverts right and order if he depends not on the will of his lord. Thus also is taught us the rule by which we are to live and to die, so that if he extends our life in continual sorrows and miseries, we are not yet to seek to depart before our time; but if he should suddenly call us hence in the flower of our age, we ought ever to be ready for our departure.
• Do you see it? It is a question of who's will we are going to serve. Is it Christ's will? Do you want to do what Christ wants you to do? Or do you insist on your own will? Who is really your Lord? Which really puts the issue in terms of whether you are a Christian or not-Romans 10:9 ...if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.
• If you are a Christian the question of Lordship has already been settled and here is
• How the question of Lordship has been settled (9).
• It has been settled by Christ's death and resurrection. Paul could not be plainer: For this reason Christ died and rose and returned to life, in order that even of the dead and the living he might be Lord. This was what lay behind his sacrifice on the Cross, ultimately. The establishment of his absolute rule over men. I had almost said, re-establishment! For he was at Creation Lord over men, but man rebelled against him. And the way to reestablish that rule was by way of the Cross and the Tomb and victory over both. In a word, the whole of God's redemptive work from Eden to the empty tomb is summed up in this verse. He died and arose again to life that he might be Lord. He is Lord by divine right, and he has earned it (Phil 2:9-11).
• You cannot ignore Christ's divine right to be Lord. For a Christian to seek his or her own pleasure, to place his or her own will over and above that of Christ is to despise the Cross and reject the resurrection of Christ. And in terms of our context, to claim to be Lord over the conscience of another in disputable matters, is to seek to displace Christ, to thrust him off of his rightful throne and replace him with....what? A wretched worm of a creature whose sin dictates his or her life and that of others rather than the glory of God. Jesus is Lord by divine right and divine accomplishment of the work of redemption. He earned this right (Phil 2:9-11; Rom 8:34).
• He is Lord of the dead. As he rules over believers as they live, he is no less Lord in their death. Remember, Paul says that if we die, we die to the Lord. And it is this assurance of Christ's Lordship that gives to believers the ability to handle the idea of dying! Death is different for the believer than it is for the unbeliever. It is still an abnormal thing to die, the result of great evil. But the attitude is everything. We do not die to go into the unknown, but rather we die to be with the Lord. The sting of death is sin, but Christ has paid for our sin and therefore the sting is gone. We still grieve as a loved one dies, and rightly so. But when our time comes, it is surrender to the Lord of the dead, not succumbing to a nameless and faceless terror.
• But he is most of all, to the joy of every believer, Lord of the living. His the hand that brings to birth and rebirth, his the hand that rocks the cradle, his the hand that guides the life, and his the hand that is laid upon the believer for the healing of the hurt done by sin, his the hand that directs the Christian in service and his the hand that closes the eyes of the faithful in death. And it is his hand that wipes away every tear and welcomes the dear departed into glory. His hand, his outstretched, nail pierced hand. If you are a Christian then you belong to Jesus as his purchased possession (1 Cor 6:19-You are not your own, you were bought with a price).